News from the Hill: February 24, 2023

Traditionally, the appropriations process begins on Capitol Hill with the releases of the administration’s annual non-biding budget request to Congress. The tentative date for this is at the start of February, but with the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 process not completed until the end of December last year, the Biden Administration has pushed back the release of its FY 2024 proposal until mid-March. While simply guidance, the document will outline the administration’s priorities for ARPA-H and related agencies in a broad sense as well as feedback on the CTSA program and other activities, specifically.

Congress is not waiting for the administration to being its annual appropriations work. The House, in particular, has already announced public witness hearings for the FY 2024 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill. Both the House and Senate are accepting input on annual priorities and funding recommendations from community stakeholders. As the appropriations process advances on Capitol Hill with little fanfare, the partisan political jockeying on issues related to spending, the deficit, and debt ceiling has already begun. Both chambers and both parties are drawing lines on defense, non-defense, and entitlements, but clear consensus messages and negotiating points have yet to crystalize.

The community is also moving forward with annual appropriations advocacy ahead of the release of the administration’s budget request. Most notably, the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research has announced that the stakeholder community’s FY24 funding request for NIH will be, “at least $50.924 billion for NIH’s foundational work, a $3.465 billion increase over the comparable FY 2023 program level”. CCTS will carry this request to Capitol Hill along with specific funding recommendations for CTSAs and the full spectrum of medical research along with investments in public health and research training and career development during Translational Science 2023’s volunteer advocacy day.